Lot 1047 Dα

This scene with resting horses and riders in the foreground, a church tower in the background and a row of packhorses standing on the left edge is typical of Barent Gael from Haarlem. The realisation of the horses and the realistic depiction of the encampment tent support the assertion of the Dutch biographer Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719) that Gael was apprenticed in the workshop of the important Haarlem master Philips Wouwerman (De Groote Schouburgh der Nederl. konstschilders en schilderessen, vol. III, The Hague 1721). Around 1600 he moved to Amsterdam, where he was first mentioned in a document on 27 March 1673. Most of his paintings are signed "B. GAEL". Fully coloured landscapes that extend diagonally into the depths of the picture show his orientation towards his Haarlem painter colleagues Claes Molenaer and Roelof van Vries. The favourite subjects of this Dutch Golden Age painter include hunting parties resting in front of an inn under tall trees, usually with a grey horse in front of them, while the peasant figures are reminiscent of those of the brothers Adriaen and Isaak van Ostade. The painting has been on permanent loan from a private collection to the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem since 1988.